A federal court ruling striking down patents on two cancer-causing genes has the potential to shake up the world of genetic patenting. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union, together with 18 individual plaintiffs, brought a suit against Myriad Genetics, which holds the licenses to the patents on the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which can…
It has been a year filled with anxiety, fear and disappointment for sufferers from Gaucher disease, who are continuing to deal with the fallout from last year’s shutdown of a pharmaceutical plant. In June 2009, Genzyme, the manufacturer of Cerezyme, then the only approved treatment for type 1 Gaucher disease, was forced to shut down…
The Social Security Administration has added two genetic diseases that affect Ashkenazi Jews to its Compassionate Allowances list, expediting the awarding of disability aid to sufferers and their families. Tay-Sachs and Maple Syrup Urine disease were added to the list effective March 1, 2010. They were among 38 diseases and cancers added to the original…
Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation 551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 520 New York, NY 10017 (212) 682-9900 www.dystonia-parkinsons.org Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia & Parkinson Foundation funds scientific research seeking to understand the causes of, and to find potential cures to, the movement disorders dystonia and Parkinson’s disease. Bloom’s Syndrome Foundation 7095 Hollywood Boulevard #583 Los Angeles, CA 90028…
The genetics blog at DiscoverMagazine.com, Gene Expression, has an eye-opening post peeling away some of the more intriguing layers in the big new study of Jewish genetic patterns that was published June 3 in the American Journal of Human Genetics and reported the next day in the Forward’s own Shmooze blog. The Journal study confirms…
A new genetic study, the largest of its kind, has found a genetic link between seven distinct groups of Jews, confirming a communal origin in the Middle East. The study, which was led by Harry Ostrer, a geneticist at New York University School of Medicine, and published yesterday in The American Journal of Human Genetics,…
Randall Belinfante was a bit baffled. When he and his wife went to take blood tests in preparation for starting a family in 2003, he discovered that the screening included a panel of tests for Ashkenazic Jewish genetic disorders. But Belinfante is Sephardic. “We told them at the time that we were not Ashkenazi, but…
Forty years ago, when Dr. Felicia Axelrod began caring for patients with familial dysautonomia at the New York University Medical Center, 50% of parents who had children with the rare genetic disorder could expect to bury them before they reached the age of 5. Today, thanks in large part to her pioneering work on treating…
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